Between 2007's No Salvation and 2010's House With A Curse, Louisville trio Coliseum grew its formidable hardcore into simultaneously overpowering and stately hard rock. The eight-song Parasites EP doesn't have No Salvation's coat of caustic grime or House's string arrangements and gorgeous blackened polish. Parasites is the work of a band still in the becoming, its fundamentals deadly solid and its options many.
"One Last Night" and "Waiting (Too Late)" showcase guitarist-vocalist Ryan Patterson's ability to turn wretchedness and frustration into something loftier, by force of brute catchiness. The rest skips across Coliseum's range, slowing to almost mourn a "cold soul waiting to die" on "Ghost Of God," and seizing up for the frantic "Gone with the Pope" and "Blood of the Beast."
What's missing here is the grand suspense of House tracks like "Perimeter Man" and "Man Was Never Meant to Fly," but Patterson's tightness with bassist Mike Pascal and drummer Carter Wilson makes that easy to forgive. Parasites says little about where Coliseum will go next, but shows it will progress with a young band's fury and a mature band's taste.
